A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 Garden Chores (part 3)

Yes I would say you do need to be extra nice to the landlord...Is he into gardening or plants??? It sounds as if he is not totally opposed to what you are doing...LOL Hubby seen how gung Ho I have gotten over composting and finally he decided to put in the 4th post where my pile is, there was already 3 posts there is why I choose that location, it is behind a shed and a few feet away from my chicken pen. Tomorrow he says (my fingers crossed) he will put chicken wire around the post and then I can really work with my compost pile better. I finished cleaning the veggie garden today and hauled 3 large heaping loads to the compost pile.

I freaked out today and dug my brugmansias up...
...and brought them inside.


I have no idea what to do with them now!

Wow those look great! We're suppose to be having our first frost tonight, so I covered up what herbs are left and my rose bush, it still has some buds on it. So I totally understand the freaking out part LOL

Well today I decided the chives had to come inside so now I have two pots of them in the kitchen window. And the tomatoes in the other kitchen window and I'm out of kitchen windows lol. And then I mixed the new green grass clippings into the middle of the brown grass clippings pile and piled it real high lol. Hopefully it will cook really good. I don't get over to that pile to often because the elbow gives me kiniption fits often if I shovel or use the pitchfork. And you know I'm still doing the compost bin every week at least.

I was reading some of Bill's fact sheets about what to do each month and thinking seriously about covering the zinnia, mums, portulaca, and roses each night. But that's a whole lot of work and I can't convince myself that I should so maybe next year.

The transplanted little dasies are doing good in one spot and not so well in the other. I hope they pull through. And that's about it for me and the garden today.

That's so funny - you digging up those brunsmanias, or whatever you call 'em - it sounds like something I would do.

I hope it works for you - I hope that by spring they'll be healthy and ready to go out to greet the new season.

In fact, I hope you win a million bucks today - anybody that works that hard deserves it.

Well today I planted 20 crocus and 20 daffodils and then mulched them all real well. That should give me some early spring color along with the snapdragons if I can get them the start indoors. Woohoo. I guess now I'm going to have to figure out what to plant for mid-summer. Most of my stuff outside the zinnia and portulaca went pretty much dormant during the heat in august.

Well today I harvested grape tomato seeds out of the refrigerator crisper lol. But a month from now I'll be straining them through cheesecloth and next year I'll have grape tomatoes as well as the roma and cherry. that is going to be so cool. And yes I am still wondering where I'm going to put all of these plants lol. I definitely need to talk to the grease monkey next door about his unused space.

you are busier and more industrious than i am! keep going, you are doing great!

Wow, did I just learn alot, especially about tomatoes! I am amazed at how much I don't know.

*****Steph

I transplanted the tomato plants today because they are going wild lol. I can't believe how they respond to compost but it's great. I used a combination of compost, peat moss, and water-keep polymer crystals. the tomatoes seem to like it so far. Only the largest one went into transplant shock and it got over it in less than 6 hours.

good going... gives me hope!

I can't believe I forgot to mention that I got some seeds from the miniature red rose bush. The hip has to go completely brown right down to the stem but there they were. I have 4 move blooms on the bush so I might be able to get another hip full before they go dormant for the year. How cool would that be.

And I think I finally have the right plan for harvesting the zinnia. I have to wait until they build that cone shape in the middle of the flower and then harvest the seeds inside that. I've been taking them from the petals and I don't think the seeds were mature. That means I'm going to owe many people more seeds next year.

Well I harvested the zinnia, yellow mums, and yellow miniature snapdragons today. Maybe money I'll see how many seeds the pods have in them. I'm to tired today and the rest of this week is packed with stuff to do.

We've had a couple of nice days - windy, but warm. In fact, if not for the wind, I would have been hot.

I've been raking, weeding, raking, weeding.

Yesterday I rescued some stuff from the compost heap - somebody discarded a buncha' plants with roots on them. When I started digging them in, I realized they're likely cyclamens - they look like them.

I just cut back two of mine and put bags over the pot - I'm leaving them on the retaining wall under the forsythia vines. I doubt if they'll make it back, but if they do then that's nature's gain.

The idea of raking right now is to feed my mulch sections - at noon today, my north lot was almost bald of leaves - that all changed, of course - within the hour - ha ha!

The leaves around here are still trying to hold on to their leaves but pretty soon I should have a huge fall of leaves. Then I can build the compost pile way up. Of course I probably won't be able to get anything going really well without some fresh green. Failing that I'll have lots to work with next year when the grass starts growing again.

cyclamens are so pretty I hope you are successful with them. I haven't had very good sucess with them in the past. But chances are that I will try them again. They are just that pretty.

I went to wal-mart yesterday for one thing. That was a really bad idea lol. So the mums were out front and I couldn't resist getting some colors I didn't already have. They are now dotting the garden now lol. I hope they suffer transplant well because come spring I am definitely going to want to move them lol. In fact I'm probably going to want to move almost everything lol.

The funnist part was that while I was planting the mums I found 2 good looking tulip bulbs. So I found spots for them and hopefully they will do better next year than they did this year.

This morning is the last morning I can collect bricks so I will be doing that once the sun is up and then it's off to church for an event.

Hope everyone has a good day.

I'm staying away from Wal Mart - and The Bay and Zellers - until I am assured that The Bay isn't going to be sold out and made into a Wal Mart, I'm boycotting department stores.

It's a Canadian thing.

......................

Anyway, don't worry about that - if those things I found in the discards are cyclamens, they won't grow back. Cyclamens are too hard to keep going - I don't know anybody who has luck with them.

The weather here has been good all week except Monday it rained all day and made me depressed. But since then I have been busy as a bee. I rebuilt my compost pile, I planted some crocus bulbs, and my tulip bed is now double in size and the tulip bulbs are replanted all except the baby bulbs. I figure I will take a pocket full each time I go outside and poke holes around the edges of things and a drop a bulb in until all the babies have been planted..I have a large cool whip tube of them. I've drug limbs cut by the electric company to a big pile out back and cleaned up that mess and put up the rest of garden related tools etc for the winter.

Speaking of Wal Mart ....I am so upset with them, I wanted to get some potting soil, and one of those special mixes. There is not one bag of anything to be had at Wal Mart, Left over Halloween and Christmas stuff has taken over the garden center. There is no where anywhere close to get any dirt, Wal Mart is 30 miles away. So I don't know what I going to do, I guess I'll to settle for recycling some used potting soil outside, that had flowers growing in it earlier in the season.

Well for me I just harvested some mums hopefully what I am collecting is seeds from them but it'll be next year before I know for sure. Wish me luck on this one.

I finally feel secure that what I am harvesting is the mums seed so I'm very pleased with myself. I'll probably go out in a little bit and see if I can get some more. So far the portulaca are flowering and acting like they are happy indoors which is great. They are growing well and the stems are red so I assume they are healthy. The stems went pale and I gave them some fertilizer and that seems to have worked. I guess I should have thought about putting a time release dry fertilizer in the soil before I put them in a pot but it didn't occur to me. I'm thinking of making up some potting soil for my avocado seed and seeing if I can get it to grow. I would love to be able to start one. Well that's it for my gardening chores so far today.

TK..I don't know how you find so much energy...If I just had half as much as you do I would be in fine shape.

I don't work or have a family so I have a bunch of time on my hands. If I had to do what wives and mothers do I'd be wiped out before 9:00a.m. in the morning. I did get the potting soil made up and the avocado planted. I know they take like 50 years to bear fruit but that's ok I just wanted to start one even if someone else benefits.

tk, isn't that what being a true gardener is all about? the selflessness of it?

tk, did I ever tell you I got the seeds? My head is still a little fuzzy - I think I did - sorry if I didn't. Anyway I got them and am thankful for my friends here on the forum. I thought you had a job - did I dream that?

You must have dreamed I had a job. Maybe it will be prophetic and I'll get one. That would be great. I'm glad you got the seeds and I hope they bring you a bunch of happiness.

Hey Jiffy, That's a great thought. And it sure seems to be true. I think everyone is happier from a bit of nature to look at.

About the avocado pit . . . one of the speakers at Canada Blooms (from Garden Depot) said that very few avocado's are actually females - yeah, that sounds funny, I know.

But it's not likely they'll grow.

I saved four last year and got nowhere.

I hope you have more luck.